Private investors detest the thought of losing money. So one has to wonder what the future holds for struggling Hawker Beechcraft. Investment bank Goldman Sachs and Canadian buyout firm Onex Corp. paid a top-of-the-market price of $3.3 billion in 2007 to acquire the builder of business jets, general aviation and military turboprops from Raytheon. But a collapse in demand for business jets the following year created a flood of red ink that has yet to be staunched despite progress in cutting costs and improving efficiency.
Campbell-Hill Aviation Group , Alexandria, Va., appointed former AirTran Airways Senior VP-Marketing and Planning Kevin Healy to its senior leadership team.
EVA Air has signed agreements to acquire 14 CFM56-powered Airbus A321s, EVA Air Chairman James Jeng told Aviation Week last week on the sidelines of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines (AAPA) annual general meeting in Seoul. “We signed some commitments already” for 14 aircraft, and the first three will join the fleet next year on lease, says Jeng.
You can now register online for Aviation Week events. Go to www.aviationweek.com/conferences or contact: Lydia Janow, 212-904-3225 or 800-240-7645 ext. 5 (U.S. and Canada only) Nov. 7—China Business Aviation Forum, Beijing Nov. 8-10—MRO Asia, Beijing Nov. 16-17—Lean Six Sigma for MRO Europe, Amsterdam Nov. 30-Dec. 1—Aerospace & Defense Finance Conference, New York Feb. 1-2—MRO Middle East 2012, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Sennheiser , Old Lyme, Conn., promoted John Falcone to VP-sales, Americas, and appointed Greg Beebe president, Sennheiser Electronic Corp.; Jean Langlais president, Sennheiser Canada and Markus Warlitz general manager, Sennheiser Latin America.
Because the price difference between West Texas Intermediate crude oil and jet fuel remains stubbornly high, refiners of WTI in the U.S. Midwest are making hay while the sun shines. And this is bad news for airlines because this price difference, known as the crack spread, is expected to persist for the next few years.
The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) Council formally has accepted—over the objections of European members—the tenets of the Delhi Declaration opposing the inclusion of international aviation in the European Union’s emissions trading system (ETS). The declaration says the inclusion of international aviation “violates the cardinal principle of state sovereignty, laid down in Article 1 of the Chicago Convention.” This provision recognizes that each country has “complete and exclusive sovereignty over the airspace above its territory.”
Embraer last week said it has been subpoenaed by the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) as part of an investigation into possible violations of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, but company executives are confident the aircraft maker will be exonerated.
The three largest airlines in the Middle East have more than 400 widebody aircraft on order, and additional deals are expected to be announced at the upcoming Dubai Air Show, Nov. 13-17. But industry analysts believe there are enough new international long-haul market opportunities for Emirates, Qatar Airways and Etihad Airways to deploy all the new jets they have ordered.
DHL has dedicated an expansion project that has added nine additional aircraft gates at the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, its North American hub for express and freight shipments. The $22 million expansion included widening of an existing parking apron to allow for nine additional widebody aircraft and a hydrant jet refueling system. Travis Cobb, VP of DHL Americas hubs, network control and gateways, said the expansion will enable improved hub operations and expansion to Asia, Europe and the Americas.
To list an event, send information in calendar format to Ingrid Lee at [email protected] (Bold type indicates new calendar listing.) Nov. 7-8—Everest Events’ Aircraft Asset Management Training School Seminar, Morrison Hotel, Dublin, Ireland, +44 (134) 232-4353, www.everestevents.co.uk/events Nov. 7-8—National Air Transportation Association Line Service Supervisor Training, Atlanta, 800-808-6282, www.nata.aero/events
Aer Lingus remains silent on rumored bids for the Irish government’s 25% stake in the carrier, choosing instead to refer all inquiries on stock purchases to the shareholder. The airline, which last week posted third-quarter profit gains and forecast a full-year operating income before exceptional items, in recent years has been the target of several takeover bids, most notably from Ryanair.
Introducing the Aero 100 Airfare Benchmark Index Designed for anyone with risk on the future level of airfares – for example Airlines, Banks/Credit Card Companies, Corporate Travel Managers, etc. The Aero 100 Airfare Benchmark Index tracks daily airfares within the domestic airline market. The Aero 100 delivers financial risk mitigation and protection against constant fluctuation of airline ticket prices by providing the price settling mechanism for Commodity Futures Contracts.
Brazil’s Groupo TAM expects to make a final decision on its proposed investment in TRIP Linhas Aereas, the country’s fifth-largest operator, at the end of the year. The deal, unveiled earlier this year, could provide TAM with a 31% stake in TRIP’s capital stock and up to 25% of the voting stock. Due diligence has since been “satisfactorily concluded,” says TAM, and the introduction of new booking, sales and check-in IT platforms has facilitated an expanded code-share between the two companies.
The Philippines’ most well-known conglomerate, San Miguel Corp., is in negotiations to buy a stake in Philippine Airlines (PAL), a senior PAL executive tells Aviation Week. The executive says San Miguel is in talks with Lucio Tan, who owns 85% of PAL via his publicly listed PAL Holdings, about investing in PAL. The talks are between Tan and San Miguel, and the airline itself is not involved in the discussions, the executive says. Aviation Week asked PAL President Jaime Bautista about the matter, but he declined to comment.
Mubadala Aerospace , Abu Dhabi, UAE, and Zurich, Switzerland, named new leaders of its global maintenance, repair and overhaul network: Homaid Al Shemmari, chairman; Abdul Khalid Saeed, president-Middle East and North Africa; Andre Wall, president-Europe; Abdulla Mohammed Shadid, chief commercial officer; and Pierre Steffen, chief supply officer.
Pinnacle Airlines’ Colgan Air subsidiary is having maintenance reliability problems with its Bombardier Q400 fleet, and executives at the U.S. regional carrier insist other airlines are having or have had similar issues with the aircraft. Bombardier, however, says the reliability of the turboprop aircraft is excellent. The Canadian airframer describes the Q400 NextGen as “a class leader in dispatch reliability” with a 99.4% rate over a recent 12-month period, and a 99.8% schedule completion rate in the same time frame.
Some airports in Asia need longer runways or some form of aircraft arresting system in order to prevent runway excursions, but costs and regulatory failures up to now have combined to allow the excursion problem to persist, say arresting-system advocates. T. J. Chen, regional director at U.S.-based Engineered Arresting Systems (EAS), says some Asian airport operators refuse to install aircraft arresting systems because, they argue, "there is nothing in the regulations that say I need to have this system.”
